Future of Diplomacy Project

Professor Nicholas Burns speaks to CNN on U.S. foreign policy.

How should the US and Australia plan for a future of both strategic competition and cooperation with China? How do we get the balance between them right? The distinguished American diplomat Nicholas Burns, the Lowy Institute’s 2019 Rothschild & Co Distinguished International Fellow, addressed these questions in the 2019 Owen Harries Lecture.

Cambridge, MA – Harvard Kennedy School has named two former senior U.S. Foreign Service Officers – Ambassador Victoria Nuland, former Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, and Ambassador Thomas Shannon, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs – as non-resident Senior Fellows with the Future of Diplomacy Project at the School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Congress needs to repair the damage Trump has caused to the effectiveness and morale of the Foreign Service. One of the first casualties of President Trump’s murky dealings with Ukraine has been the United States Foreign Service, the group of nonpartisan career professionals who serve as America’s primary point of contact with the world beyond our borders. While the House impeachment inquiry has rightly become a top priority, Congress must also act to repair the substantial damage Mr. Trump has caused to the effectiveness and morale of our diplomats and other State Department employees.

Former U.S. ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns to CNN host Don Lemon: "The real question here -- and I think it's going to set up the hearings tomorrow in the House when Ambassador Kurt Volker goes up. How is it possible that a private citizen, Rudy Giuliani, essentially hijacked United States policy towards Ukraine?"

Ambassador Nicholas Burn on CNN discussing the implications of Secretary of State Pompeo on President Donald Trump's Ukraine phone call.

A group of former national security professionals is pushing back on President Trump's interactions with the president of Ukraine. More than 300 of them signed an open letter last week calling Trump's actions "an unconscionable abuse of power." One of them is Nicholas Burns — former ambassador to NATO and now a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School. He's also an unpaid adviser to the Joe Biden campaign.

Speech given by Admiral Philip Davidson, Commander of the  U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, at the Future of Diplomacy Project's event on "China's Challenge to a Free and Open Indo-Pacific" at the Harvard Kennedy School 

President Trump’s decision to release the contents of his July call with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has set a precedent his administration will have trouble containing.

More than 300 former national security officials have come out in support of an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, arguing the President’s actions in regard to Ukraine are a “profound national security concern.”